Jamie Guerard is the author of Awaken, a fantastic novel full of mystery, romance, and suspense. This is what she has to say on reading, writing, and everything literary!!

Hi Jaime! Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions.

Hi Kayla, I would like to first say thank you for hosting this interview! Your support means the world to me!

What inspired you to become an author?

Wow…how do I answer this question? I know a lot of people say they were inspired by reading or they always knew that they wanted to be an author, but for me, Awaken came to me right after I read the Twilight Series! I was drawn to the writing style and the emotion, characters and how a book can suck you into another world. It was then that I knew writing stories and creating a fictional world was something I was destined to do.

How did you first get the idea for “Awaken”?

Oh I love this question because I remember the exact day/hour it came, as if it was yesterday! It was October 14, 2008 when the entire Awaken Series (all three books) filled my head with mystery, suspense, love and a storyline that just had to be told! I’m not sure why it came. I’d been searching for my “purpose” in life and at the time I was a stay-at-home mom that didn’t do much but provide every waking day to the care of my family. But I knew there was more for me! So the next month (September 2008) I sat down at my computer and started to write!

In what ways do you relate to Bre Davis?

I think the main trait that I have (that Bre struggles with throughout the series) is faith in the unknown. What I mean by this; Bre has so many obstacles in her life that force her to trust in herself. She has to have faith that, even when the odds are stacked against her she has the strength and power to overcome anything. She has to believe everything will turn out okay even in the bad times. So many times in my life when I didn’t know what was going to happen, and it didn’t seem like things would get better, I had to believe that everything happens for a reason.

What is your writing strategy?

My writing strategy is a little different than most authors. Some authors have word counts per day that they want to achieve, others have storyboards so they can visualize how their story needs to flow and what needs to happen. For me, I write when the chapter comes to me. When I started writing Awaken I already knew the major scenes that needed to happen in the novel and the elements (between each character) that needed to take place. So from there I would work up to those big scenes and only wrote when I was inspired (which was most of the time).

What is the best part of being an independent (indie) author?

There are a lot of things to be thankful for in this industry, but if I had to choose one it would be the connections I’ve made with other indie authors! There’s no way I could’ve done this and published my novel without the help and support of my fellow authors. I love you all!

Do you have any advice for aspiring authors/writers?

My advice for aspiring authors is to sit down and get your thoughts out of your head and don’t worry about making your MS perfect. Editing will happen later! When I first started writing Awaken I was taking a lot of time trying to edit my MS. I would spend months on one chapter and it wasn’t getting me anywhere. But one day my husband gave me some great advice and that was to just write it out and then go back and edit. I’m so glad I listened to him because Awaken probably still would’ve been unfinished.

Do you have any favorite books and/or authors that you would recommend?

Some of my favorite novels are: Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer, Divergent Series by Veronica Roth, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Colins, Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers, Bitter Angel by Megan Hand, Branded by Abi Ketner and Missy Kalicicki (to name a few).